Philadelphia's Safe and Healthy Homes Act takes effect November 1, 2026. Landlords face rent clawbacks and attorney fees for invalid licenses, can't refuse lease renewals without legal cause, and tenants gain stronger organizing and anti-retaliation rights. Kevin Moyer urges landlords to audit paperwork and secure proper licensing before the deadline.
Hey guys, Kevin Moyer with The Row Report here. So as many predicted, City Council last week passed two bills collectively known as the Safe and Healthy Homes Act in Philadelphia. This was voted almost unanimously, 16 to 1, through City Council. So plenty of support at the council level. It does technically have to go through the mayor's office, but with a potential veto, I don't see it happening. Even if it does, it has the votes. So this law is passing and it will take effect November 1st. There are 3 main things that it does. First and foremost, it makes brutal penalties for failure to comply with rental license and certificate of rental suitability for property owners. So how things work right now, if you're a property owner and you don't have a rental license, you collect some rent, your tenant moves out, it's no harm, no foul. It's essentially water under the bridge. If the tenant paid rent, uh, even though you weren't licensed, it's, it's yours to keep. This bill gives a clawback provision and lawyer fees if you are not compliant to your tenant. So I spoke about this on a previous video, but your tenant— you must have a rental license and a certificate of rental suitability provided to your tenant in accordance with the law, or they can claw back all the rent they have paid for years and years and years. So it makes it brutally risky for property owners to be uncompliant with your paperwork and with your licensing. So it really, really ups the ante there regarding, um, regarding compliance with your rental license. Stay on that. Number 2, it expands good cause protections. In Philadelphia right now, uh, good cause protections are not existent for leases over a year. So if you have a tenant for— that stays over a year, you can non-renew their lease, kick them out, and sell the property at the end of the lease term when the lease is up. Now, and you can't do it in Philadelphia anymore, you cannot simply tell a tenant you need to leave at the end of your lease. You cannot do that. You must have good cause to terminate a tenant's lease. Now, the good cause does encompass almost anything you can reasonably think of aside from just selling the property. So if your tenant's not paying rent, if they're causing trouble, um, if they are not accepting a new lease that you provided to them, you do have good cause in those situations to non-renew the tenant, but you got to check the boxes and do it the right way. So this good cause protection is expanded beyond just, um, short-term leases now to leases over 1 year. It covers everything now, so that's a change. And then number 3, broadly speaking, it gives tenants more power to communicate and organize and more protections from retaliation. So your tenants can unionize, they can, uh, they can coordinate with other tenants, they can go on rent strikes, they can pass out pamphlets. It sets the stage for some significant potential issues in large multifamily space that I foresee. So tenants can knock on doors and, and tell each other about the law, the specifics of the provision, and they can take full advantage of these regulations and, um, and the paperwork issues that come and release them from their rent obligations. So Philadelphia landlords, you really you have to make sure your T's are crossed and your I's are dotted in response to this new, these new bills that will take effect, um, November 1st this year.
